


Baby Take a Bow

by a_solitary_marshmallow



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:47:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25355716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_solitary_marshmallow/pseuds/a_solitary_marshmallow
Summary: New year, new world!The crew wasn't expecting this world to also have new spells they haven't encountered before. Especially not spells that can turn back the clock on a creature's age. Havoc ensues.
Relationships: Barry Bluejeans & Magnus Burnsides, Magnus Burnsides & Everyone, Magnus Burnsides & Lup, Magnus Burnsides & Merle Highchurch, Magnus Burnsides & Taako
Comments: 21
Kudos: 33





	1. Lup

The crew was alerted to the presence of native life by Lucretia’s shout. Immediately Magnus tore from where they were exploring the Starblaster’s surroundings to follow the noise.

Lup grabbed her wand and dashed after him. Another plane, another unknown world to explore. They’d been scouting the forest-covered world for a few days before setting the Starblaster down in a clearing one crisp morning. After a careful inspection, the forest had seemed to pose no threat, so the party had disbanded to go about their various duties. Lucretia, Magnus and Lup were taking a break outside and checking out the nearby river when Lucretia must have wandered away from the group, because her cry had sounded from deeper in the forest.

Lup burst through the trees to find Lucretia pinned to a bunch of roots, struggling against the sticky webs that held her down. Lup aimed her umbrastaff to shoot off a spell to free her.

“No, I’m fine!” Lucretia called. “I can get myself out. Go after Magnus, he followed it over there, I can’t see them anymore.”

Lup hesitated. Lucretia jerked her head towards a thick cluster of trees, and Lup made her decision, spinning to run in the direction Lucretia indicated. There were crashing sounds through the trees and as she drew nearer, a sizzling _crack_ that made the trees tremble and the hairs on Lup’s arms stand on end.

“Magnus!” She shoved through a curtain of hanging vines. There was a Magnus-coloured shape sprawled on the ground nearby, tangled in roots with a figure crouching nearby. Lup aimed and blasted Ray of Frost at the creature. “Get off him!”

The creature – an elf maybe, it was hard to tell with all the camouflage paint and leaves stuck to their skin – let out a yelp and staggered back. Lup prepared a magic missile.

“Er-” The elf ducked behind a tree, the tip of one ear just poking out. Not the most threatening entity they’d come across. Lup didn’t take her eyes off them.

“Magnus, are you okay?”

“Mmph.” Magnus said eloquently. Lup narrowed her eyes and stepped slowly towards the camouflaged elf. They peeked nervously around the tree trunk. They didn’t look malevolent. Just scared.

“Hi.” Lup hesitated. “Look, are you gonna try to kill me and my pals? Because you look like a cool dude and I don’t wanna fight you. Sorry for trespassing or whatever. I think we got off on the wrong foot here, my name’s Lu-”

The crashing of footsteps made Lup’s ear twitch. The elf made a break for it. Lup lunged after them but they cast a quick spell and were gone in a Blink. Lup sighed and glanced around as Lucretia ran up, panting and sticky with some kind of glue.

“Don’t stress, they’re gone. Did they attack you, Luce?”

“I don’t think so.” Lucretia scanned the greenery. “They gave me a fright, but I think I scared them too. They shot me with that web and ran when Magnus chased after them.”

Oh yeah, Magnus. Lup tucked away her umbrastaff and picked her way over to the still-sprawled warrior to check on him. Except… the closer she got, the smaller he seemed. Almost drowning in his clothes. And… young.

“Hey babe, you good?” Lup called. The child who sat, blinking, where Magnus had been tipped his head curiously.

Child-Magnus had none of adult-Magnus’s scars. Tanned brown skin once littered with receipts from costly fights was now smooth and unmarred. His clothes swamped his small, chubby frame. The trademarked sideburns were gone too and auburn hair stuck up around his freckled face as he stared at them owlishly.

“Hi?” He said, voice high and curious.

“Uh, hi?” Lucretia echoed. Child-Magnus’s face lit up with recognition.

“Cree! And Lulu!”

Lup laughed nervously. “Yeeeeeah. Magnus, sweetheart, do you mind telling me where you think you are?”

Magnus frowned in thought. Shit, he was adorable when his lip pouted out like that. Lup padded over to crouch next to him and his face cleared as he beamed up at her.

“A forest! I think, because there’s lotsa trees?”

Shuffling as Lucretia joined them. Lup shot her a puzzled look and Lucretia returned it.

“Do you think it’s a spell?” Lucretia offered.

“It’s gotta be.” Lup confirmed. “I didn’t see the elf curse him though, I came after that. I can’t think of any spells that would do this. Maybe it’ll wear off?”

“Maybe.” Lucretia’s brow furrowed. Lup turned back to tiny Magnus who was busy trying to lift his axe, which was as tall as him. She yelped and snatched the weapon from his hands.

“Nope! No blades for the baby!”

Magnus pouted, making Lucretia laugh softly.

“We should get back to the ship and give everyone an update.” Lucretia suggested. Yeah, probably important. Lup nodded.

“Maggie, we’re gonna go home, okay?”

“Home?” Magnus’s head tipped, reminiscent of a confused puppy.

“The ship.”

“Oh!” He jumped up with a bright smile. “The ship! That’s where Dav and Merle and everyone else is, right?”

“Right.” Lup confirmed. She cast a quick levitate spell on Magnus’s heavy gear and straightened. “Let’s go.”

Lucretia took hold of the floating weapons and started towards the ship. Lup followed and got about ten steps before realizing Magnus wasn’t behind her. She turned to find Magnus making grabby hands with a hopeful expression.

“…You wanna be carried?”

He jumped up and down. Lup laughed.

“Okay, fine, big boy. Hold on.” She bent down to scoop him up. She could maybe get used to this cute, fun-sized Magnus. He wrapped his chubby arms around her neck and laughed when Lup set him on her hip. Maybe she bounced and cooed a couple times to make him giggle. If so that was nobody’s business.

They met Barry inside, and he blinked a couple times. “Is that Magnus?”

“We met a local.” Lucretia explained. “Where’s Davenport? We need to debrief.”


	2. Barry

Some time later Taako transmuted some of Magnus’s clothes to be child-sized and the crew gathered around to watch him with varying expressions of concern, confusion and awe at his adorableness. Magus was happily preoccupied with trying and failing to tie his shoelaces.

“So.” Davenport broke the silence. “Did you get a good look at the person who cursed him?”

“Just briefly,” Lucretia explained. “Lup agrees with me that it was an elf, but they were camouflaged. I didn’t see them at first and they gave me a fright. I don’t think they meant any harm though.”

“They seemed pretty frightened, actually,” Lup volunteered. “I think we scared them and they lashed out. I want to go out and look for them – if we can talk, they might be able to undo whatever spell they hit Magnus with. Plus, maybe they have a clue about where the light is. It’s worth a shot.”

“If this person is an elf, they might trust Taako and Lup the most.” Davenport suggested. “The rest of us should be okay here if you two want to go look for them.”

“Nuh uh!” Merle piped up. “I wanna see the plant elf thing! Plants _are_ my speciality. I’m coming too.”

“Sure.” Davenport nodded, glancing around at the team. “Merle, Lup and Taako, you’re out looking for information. Lucretia, I’ll need your help checking the bond engine is working at full capacity. We took a couple hard hits from the Hunger in the last cycle. And someone’s gonna have to watch Magnus for a couple hours. Barry?”

“Sure, I can do that.” Barry did not look sure. In fact, he looked rather unsure, but he squared his shoulders. Davenport nodded.

“Good. We’ll reconvene at noon. Merle, Lup and Taako, keep your stones of farspeech on at all times and update us if you find anything.”

The group split to go off on their various assignments. Lup brushed Barry’s shoulder and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“No worries, Care-Bear, you’re gonna do great. Enjoy babysitting duty.”

Barry snorted. “I’ll try. Be careful out there, okay?”

“Sure thing babe.”

Lup jogged out to join her teammates.

Leaving Barry to stare at a rather confused-looking Magnus. The child glanced around before asking, “Where did everyone go?”

Magus was a kid now. They’d faced weirder stuff. And Barry and Magnus were friends, they hung out all the time. There was no reason this should be any different.

Barry hadn’t been around kids enough to know if he was good with them. Gods, he hoped he was good with them.

Magnus was still looking at him.

“They all had work to do, so it’s just us for a while.” Barry dropped down into a crouch because it felt weird to talk _down_ to _Magnus_. “Looks like we have some time on our hands. What do you want to do?”

Magnus tipped his head, looking uncharacteristically shy. “Can… can we play?”

“Play, huh?” They didn’t exactly have any toys on the Starblaster, but Barry could improvise. There was all sorts of stuff lying around in his lab. “Sure, buddy, we can play. Do you wanna go see what toys we can find?”

Magnus brightened. “Yeah! I mean, um, yes please.”

Luckily Magnus was not a picky kid. He was happy to roam around Barry’s lab, ooing and aahing while Barry sifted through all his junk. Did a thousand-piece three-dimensional puzzle of the Starblaster count as a toy? Or was Magnus too young to not swallow the pieces? Probably better to be safe than sorry. He set it carefully in a drawer.

“What’s this?” Magnus called from across the room. Barry glanced around to see him puzzling at a chalk circle drawn on the ground.

“Oh, that’s a summoning circle. I can do all sorts of necromancy with that.”

“Cool!”

Maybe Magnus would enjoy looking at rock samples? Gods, Barry really should have asked someone what age Magnus seemed to be. And what things kids of that age liked doing.

He really had no idea what he was doing.

Magnus made a cooing sound. Barry glanced around to see him lifting a vial of colourful liquid. He shrugged and turned back to his drawers before it hit him.

Oh shit, that was the flesh-eating acid he’d gotten from cycle eight.

Barry lunged across the room and snatched the vial from Magnus’s hands before the kid could pop open the cork.

“ _No_ nonono, hey, kiddo, maybe we should do something else? Do you like drawing?”

Magnus, who had flinched at the sudden movement and shouting, paused to peer up Barry.

“Mm hmm.”

“Well,” Barry looked around desperately. Where were his pencils? Could kids at Magnus’s age draw things, or just colour? Did he even have coloured pencils???

Barry’s gaze landed on the set of paints he’d purchased during cycle nineteen, and then at his collection of various animal and humanoid skulls he used as paperweights.

“How do you feel about decorating?”

Magnus took to painting like a duck to water. Barry spread out a couple rags to catch the drips as they smeared paint on skulls and a particularly large femur they’d found under a table. They’d started with brushes but when an overly enthusiastic Magnus dunked his hands straight into the paint, Barry had shrugged and joined him in finger-painting. While decorating each skull they came up with fun stories for the original owners, who they’d been and how they died. Barry had an unreasonable amount of fun doing the voices.

And Lucretia had called his bone collection morbid. Barry chuckled as he watched Magnus happily painting a human skull in bright pinks and yellows. Magnus paused for a moment to consider his handiwork.

“That looks great, Magnus.” Barry encouraged. Magnus turned to him with a beaming smile. There was paint splattered across his face.

“Hey, Bare?”

“Yeah buddy?”

“Where did this one come from?”

Hmm. Maybe the truth _was_ a bit morbid for a kid? Barry really didn’t want to be responsible for traumatizing the little guy. But Magnus didn’t seem upset, so he spoke slowly and carefully, considering each word.

“Well, Magnus, do you know what happens on this ship every year? How everything resets and the people who are hurt get better?”

Magnus nodded.

“It’s like we get new bodies every year. This,” He gestured to the skull, “is a part of one of my old bodies.” He very carefully did not say that it was from the cycle where he’d fallen and impaled himself on a stalagmite, and his final words were asking if they could keep the skull because it’d be pretty fucking cool to have his own skull sitting on his desk. In his defense, it was _so_ cool. The next time Lup died she’d asked to have hers kept too, so they’d have matching couples skulls. Of course, the pair of matching ones sat together on Barry’s desk, not thrown together with the rest. He wasn’t a _heathen_.

He just had a couple extra Barry skulls lying around in his bone paperweight collection, prime candidates for painting.

“So this is yours?” Magnus asked curiously. He didn’t _look_ like he was about to burst into tears, so Barry nodded.

“Yup.”

“Oh.” Magnus frowned for a moment. “Well, cool.” His eyes widened excitedly. “Is one of _mine_ here?”

“Why, do you want to paint it?”

“Uh huh!”

Hmm. Giving a kid a skull from a dead version of his future self to play with?

… 

Yeah, seems fine.

“Sure, just let me find it, I’ve got one somewhere next to the seal bones. Hey, I think I’ve got some glitter back here too if you want it.”

“ _YES_!”


	3. Davenport

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter this time around! I wanted to have a chapter with the different crewmates interacting with baby Magnus. But, because this is short, there's another chapter coming soon!

Davenport returned to the deck of the Starblaster around noon, once he was sure the bond engine was in pristine condition. The ship was… quiet. Not unusually so, but Davenport would have expected Magnus to be a rambunctious child. The lack of shouts or laughter or even crying made him nervous. He made his way through the halls, glancing around for any sign of Barry and his young charge.

Davenport found them soon enough, even if the sight of them made him stifle a snort. Painted skulls lay scattered around Barry’s lab, as did the two humans in question. A sheet had been thrown over Barry’s old denim loveseat to protect it and now Barry was slumped on it, snoring away with paint and glitter on his cheek, his hair mussed and glasses crooked. Magnus was dead asleep on top of him. Magnus had evidently fallen asleep part-way through painting Barry’s face because his hands were covered in sparkles and he was drooling on Barry’s shirt.

Well, they looked like they’d had fun. Davenport was glad. At Barry’s lost look when he’d first gotten babysitting duty, the captain couldn’t help but worry.

As it was, he had two very messy humans to deal with. One of them was old enough to clean himself up, but the other…

Davenport nudged Magnus gently. The kid yawned and burrowed further into Barry’s shirt. Stubborn thing. He refused to wake up even when Davenport lifted him and carried him to the bathroom. Magnus only started to yawn and blink his eyes open when Davenport wet a cloth and started wiping at his hands.

“Hmm… wha…?”

“You got a little messy.” Davenport said softly while he worked. Luckily the paint was still wet so it came of pretty easily.

Magnus yawned again. “I wanna sleep.”

“You can take a nap in a moment. We just have to clean you up first.” Davenport stopped talking for a moment while he focused on making sure all the paint was gone. “Did you have fun with Barry?”

“Mm hmm.”

A few minutes later, a sleepy Magnus allowed himself to be carried out of the bathroom. Davenport paused in the hallway. He would take Magnus to his own room, but he wasn’t sure if the kid should be left alone.

Davenport finally brought Magnus into the captain’s quarters and tucked him into his bed. It was gnome-sized, so adult Magnus would have squashed it, but child Magnus was a perfect fit. Magnus yawned and snuggled into the blankets.

Satisfied, Davenport nodded to himself and went to his desk. He had work to do – and a sleeping child to keep an eye on.


	4. Taako

Taako grumbled as he tossed bits and pieces around the kitchen. So much for kicking back this cycle. He’d spent all morning combing the woods with Lup and Merle only to come up empty-handed, and _then_ Davenport had the audacity to stick him with babysitting for the afternoon! Just great.

Tot-Magnus trailed after him over the tiles. “Watcha doing?”

“Cooking.”

“Watcha cooking?”

“Surprise.”

“Oh.” Magnus paused in the middle of the kitchen and started to gnaw on his thumb nervously. The little demon would chew through it at this rate. Taako conjured a rubber chewie toy shaped like an elephant and popped it into Magnus’s mouth in passing. The kid let out a surprised sound.

Taako dropped his bucket of apples onto the bench and started peeling with a practiced hand. Magnus, chewing absently on his toy, wandered over and crawled onto a chair to peek at what Taako was doing.

“Apples!” Magnus crowed excitedly. “Why are there so many?”

“They’ll go bad if we leave them for too long and this planet has plenty of fruit already, so I’m using them all up.”

“Can I help?”

“Sure, pass ‘em to me, my man.”

Soon Taako had finished peeling and chopping the apples into pieces. Magnus watched the quick knifework with stars in his eyes. Next came the rhubarb, and then he swept them into a pot to stew and started working on the crumble. He darted around the kitchen to retrieve the ingredients he needed.

Magnus watched him curiously from his chair, still gnawing happily on his chewie toy. At one point he dropped it and Taako caught it with a quick mage hand. He conjured a cord, strung the toy with it and tossed the chewie-necklace around Magnus’s neck to stop him dropping it again. Magnus cooed happily.

Taako dropped the measured ingredients and a bowl in front of the kid.

“Alright, time to make yourself useful ya little nuisance. I want that mixed together, and if you use your hands to do it you’ll be eating Merle’s cooking for a week.”

Magnus giggled and got to work mixing with entirely the wrong kind of spoon. Still, better than using his grubby mitts. Taako got to work on making ice cream. None of that store-bought shit. Just because the shops on the last plane sold that crap didn’t mean he had to _buy_ it. Taako wished he’d had time to school that prissy ice-cream-man on how to make _proper_ ice cream. The guy would have been weeping at his feet.

The crumble was well and truly stirred, but Magnus seemed pretty happy going at it so Taako let him continue. It wasn’t like crumble could get over mixed. While the ice cream was freezing and the fruits were stewing away, Taako made a decision.

“Alright, move over, short stuff.” He retrieved the bowl of crumble and slapped down a ball of cookie dough that he’d left to sit in the fridge last night. “You want sugar highs? Of course you do, you brat. What you wanna do is roll out the dough, like so, cut it into shapes, and put it on this tray, capishe?”

“Okay.” Magnus said brightly.

“Well hurry up, pumpkin, we don’t have all day.” Taako waved his hand and went off to start constructing the apple crumble and put it in to bake. The few times he passed Magnus, the kid was hard at work. Ha – that’d show Barold. Who occupies a kid with painting skulls? Of course Taako was the far superior babysitter. He was probably Magnus’s favourite, too.

Or he better be, after feeding the critter. Taako refused to let his ears blush at the thought of being the favourite.

“Ko!” Magnus squeaked. Taako ducked over to glance at the cookie-dough shapes on the tray. “Look, I did it!”

“Choice, my man. What are they?”

“That one’s a cookie.” Magnus said very seriously.

“Uh, yeah, no duh. What’s the shape?”

“It’s _shaped_ like a cookie, duh!” Magnus screwed up his stupidly adorable face. “And this one’s a monster, and this one’s the ship,” He pointed out a couple others that Taako lost track of, “and this one’s your hat!”

Taako looked dubiously at a vaguely pointy-looking shape. “This one, huh?”

Magnus beamed at him.

“…good job, honeybun. Looks just like the real deal. What do you say we put these bad boys in the oven, then we can ice them?”

By the end of the afternoon Taako had a tray of shitty-looking cookies, a dish of apple crumble and a tub of ice cream to show for it, just in time to pawn Magnus off on someone else while beginning to make dinner. He flagged down a passing Merle.

“Yo, Merle, come take the shortstuff for a while. I’ve got actual cooking to do.”

Merle waddled over and Magnus looked distraught. “What? But we were having so much fun!”

“Yeah, pumpkin, but Taako’s got work to do.” Taako opened the fridge and reached for the vegetable compartment – only to feel something small latch onto his leg.

“ _Please_ don’t make me go! I wanna stay here with you!” Magnus wailed.

Of course kid Magnus would be throwing temper tantrums. Adult Magnus was like, the most childish person Taako knew, and he was an _adult_.

Taako just wasn’t used to how _small_ he was now, how tiny and fragile and _trusting_ he was. How badly he wanted company, _Taako_ ’s company. Taako very carefully did not turn around and did not let Merle see how his eyes were prickling. The stupid dwarf seemed to notice anyway.

“I’ll just leave the baby with you.” He snickered. Taako could feel his cheeks and ears blush furiously. He didn’t turn around until the sounds of Merle’s waddling footsteps had retreated from the kitchen.

Taako took a deep breath, blinking hard to clear his eyes before swiveling around to glance at the human child still attached to his leg. Magnus was sniffling and looked ten seconds away from a full meltdown.

“Jeez, all you had to do was ask, no need to throw a tantrum. You wanna help me make dinner for everyone?”

Magnus sniffed and nodded.

“Cool. Imma need you to let go of Taako’s leg, then we’ve got a lasagna to make. Let’s cook some gourmet fucking food.” He paused. “Shit, don’t repeat that. Wait, don’t say that either.”

“Don’t say gourmet?” Magnus asked weakly.

“Err, no, you can say that.”

“You mean ‘fuck’?”

“You wash your mouth out with soap, young man. Now get over here and wash your grubby hands too, before you touch any of my food that’s not gonna be peeled.”

“Okay!” Magnus, bright once again and with only a few tear tracks remaining from his tantrum, scurried over to the sink. Taako most definitely did not swipe tears from his traitor eyes.

Babysitting was stupid. If anyone tried to take Magnus away he was gonna cast Magic Missile on their kid-stealing ass.


	5. Lucretia

Another difficulty came up after dinner – namely, the question of where Magnus was going to sleep. He had his own room, of course, but none of the crew were confident leaving him alone. Especially in a room with so many weapons casually lying around.

They finally settled on Lucretia having him overnight. It wouldn’t impact her much anyway, she reasoned, as Magnus grabbed her hand and they walked to her room. Lucretia was usually up late recording the day’s events so she would be able to keep an eye on him while he fell asleep.

“Where are we going?” Magnus yawned. Lucretia swung their connected hands gently.

“We’re going to my room. It’s bedtime.”

“We’re having a sleepover?” Magnus perked up slightly.

“Sure, a sleepover.”

“Can we watch movies?”

“No, tonight we’re just sleeping.”

Magnus pouted. “But I’m not tired.” Lucretia rolled her eyes.

“Of course you’re not. But, you see Magnus, I’m _very_ tired. But I can’t get to sleep! Maybe you could help me. What makes _you_ sleepy?”

Magnus’s eyes lit up. He could deny needing sleep all he wanted, but if someone _else_ was tired… “Oh! You’ve gotta get lotsa blankets. Here!” They’d reached Lucretia’s room and he dragged her to her bed. Lucretia bit down a smile at Magnus’s bossiness as he directed her movements and artfully arranged the pillows. She didn’t have enough pillows in her room, Magnus decided, so he ran out and got more from who-knows where.

Bemused, Lucretia found herself buried in a pile of linens with a grinning Magnus balancing pillows on top. Once he was satisfied with his handiwork he squirmed into the nest to join her.

“And you gotta have hugs or you can’t sleep!” His brow furrowed in puzzlement. “I think. Mama always hugs me before bed and then I sleep.”

“Mm. Then it must be true.” Lucretia held out her arms as much as she was able and Magnus latched onto her. He wrapped his tiny arms around her neck and Lucretia held him close. The kid was snoring within minutes.

She had work to do. With the day being so busy and chaotic, she’d barely had time to record anything. Not that that was uncommon. Lucretia commonly stayed up into the early hours of the morning buried in her books. She was the chronicler and she took her duties very seriously.

However… she supposed she could miss one night.

With child-Magnus in her arms, sleepy fingers wrapped around her hair and face squished against her shoulder, Lucretia found that she didn’t much mind the idea.


	6. Merle

The next morning Lup and Barry went out to keep looking for the native elf; Taako had firmly put his foot down and proclaimed that he was _not_ walking through a damp forest for hours on end two days in a row. Barry seemed happy to be going off with Lup so Merle graciously decided to stay behind with the ship to give those lovebirds some time together.

Anyway, there were plenty of plants to study around the Starblaster. While at first glance this planet seemed pretty standard, a closer inspection had shown that it held a wide variety of plant life Merle had never seen before. He picked a nice clearing in front of the Starblaster to sit down and prepare to cast ‘Speak with Plants’. Maybe the trees around here had some good info to share.

As he settled himself, he noticed a small figure venturing away from the ship. Merle waved to Magnus and Magnus waved back exuberantly before tottering off to have a look at the river. Davenport had parked next to it since it was the closest thing to a landmark they could find in this dense world of trees.

Merle cast the spell and began to converse. Trees weren’t the best conversationalists – more often than not they didn’t have much to say – but these ones seemed to be humming with thought. He greeted them but they didn’t take much interest in his presence.

From what Merle could divine they weren’t used to such excitement. The bipeds that lived around them were quiet and gentle with nature – they often spoke with the plants, which explained the nonchalance towards Merle’s presence, but they certainly did not have giant metal birds that hummed and smashed the undergrowth when it landed. The thoughts were not fearful or angry, more curious than anything. The forest wondered about this strange construction.

The people in it, less so. They were people. The forest already had those.

Now that was interesting. Merle continued prodding. A nearby shrubbery finally took notice of him enough to brush against his mind. It sent him a quick thought – a flash of _people_. Elves. It sent him a few more mind pictures as if trying to get him up to date with the discussion they were all having.

Merle sent out his opinion into the group. Plants tended to think and talk as with as much variation as humanoid creatures, and these ones worked with images and feelings. Not great in the word department. So he sent out the concept of ‘safe’ and ‘friend’. The plants responded with curiosity. He continued by showing them the feeling of ‘home’ he felt whenever he looked at the Starblaster.

If nothing else, the forest seemed more content now. Merle had been planning on asking more, but before he could, a scream made him jump and the spell shattered. Merle whipped around.

Magnus must have slipped because he was currently _in_ the river. He kicked and thrashed wildly, tried to yell again and ended up getting a mouthful of water. Merle jumped to his feet.

Another crewmember was already coming to the kid’s aid. With a flicker of magic Taako teleported out into the open, already bolting to the river’s edge. He dropped into a skid and lunged forward to snatch Magnus out of the water before the kid could sink. Magnus let out a cough and a wail. Taako clutched him tight.

“Holy _shit_ Maggie, what are you doing out here? I told you to stay put! Are you okay, pumpkin?”

Magnus only kept crying. Merle jogged up to them. “Is he hurt?”

“I don’t know.” Taako fretted. Merle plopped down next to them on the river bed and inspected Magnus. The wailing kid was soaking wet and dripping water onto Taako’s blouse, and he was clutching one hand to his chest. Now that Merle was looking at it, the wrist looked a bit funny. Sprained, maybe? Possibly broken, but Merle didn’t think so.

“Hey buddy, I’m gonna need to see it so I can make it better.” Merle chided gently. Magnus hiccupped and thrust his wrist towards Merle as if the dwarf could simply pluck the hurt away. Which, in a way, he could.

Merle cast a healing spell and Magnus’s sobs slowly faded as the injury healed over. He clutched at Taako’s shirt and sniffled pathetically.

“All good.” Merle reported to the distressed-looking Taako. “Just a sprain, but it’s all taken care of now. You wanna take him back inside? Kid looks like he could use a nap.”

“Natch.” Taako lifted Magnus onto his hip and stood. “Thanks Merle.”

He carried a shivering Magnus back into the Starblaster. Merle watched them to make sure there were no more mishaps. Once he was sure they wouldn’t accidentally trip and blow something up, Merle brushed himself off and went back to his spot to pick up the conversation where it had left off.


	7. Jules

Lup and Barry returned that evening with a nervous elf in tow. Lucretia had only gotten a glimpse of them during their scuffle in the forest. They were covered from head to toe in twigs and moss and pieces of plant matter, which she quickly realized was not simply camouflage but grew off them, making them all but invisible amid the greenery. They stuck out sharply in the open, though.

They didn’t seem too different from the elves Lucretia was familiar with, barring the plant growth and the extra length of their ears. Those ears fluttered nervously with every whisper of wind and movement, much longer than Lup’s as she and Barry led them towards the Starblaster.

Lucretia called out a soft greeting to her crewmates and walked up to meet the approaching party. No sign of injuries except for a few scratches on their faces and some twigs in Lup’s hair. Lup waved her over with a grin. Lucretia made sure to put a welcoming smile on her face and make her posture non-threatening for the sake of the twitchy elf.

“I’m glad you’re safe.” She greeted her friends warmly in elfish and nodded to the stranger. “Good evening. It’s nice to properly meet you. My name is Lucretia.”

“…I’m Jules.” The elf mumbled in common, which was a relief, because Lucretia’s elfish was pretty rusty. “Err, sorry for the webbing. You kinda gave me a fright the other day.”

“I’m sorry too. Screaming probably wasn’t the best reaction to seeing someone new.” Lucretia admitted. Lup leaned on Barry’s shoulder and started to explain.

“Jules’s village lives not far off from here, but it’s _super_ well hidden. The elves there were really hospitable when we explained we’re peaceful. Oh yeah, Jules,” She added, “Lucretia is another female like me. She/her instead of they/them.”

“Right.” Jules nodded. At Lucretia’s look they screwed up their face. “So all of your kind have this binary division? How do you know which is ‘he’ and which is ‘she’ and which is ‘they’?”

Thankfully Lucretia was spared from having to answer by the sound of her crewmates approaching. Magnus was holding onto Merle and Davenports’ hands, casting nervous looks at the gurgling river nearby. He perked up when he noticed the stranger in their midst.

“Hi!”

Jules winced. “I’m sorry about that too. They frightened me.”

“He.” Lup reminded. “Magnus is a he.”

After a few quick introductions Davenport got straight to business.

“The curse on my crewmate, can you reverse it?”

“Yeah, sure.” Jules said. Lucretia watched curiously as the elf walked up to Magnus. They didn’t use a wand – they didn’t seem to need one. Instead they reached out to touch the little guy’s head. Magnus giggled and grabbed their finger.

Jules’s eyes crinkled with amusement. They booped Magnus gently on the nose.

The point of contact crackled for a split second before there was a miniature explosion of smoke that made Lucretia jump. When the smoke cleared child-Magnus was no more.

Adult Magnus lay sprawled on the grass. He sat up slowly with a groan, squinting at the people around him.

“Uh… what did I miss?”

“How ya feeling, big guy?” Barry stepped forward to pull him to his feet. Magnus took the helping hand thankfully. “Do you remember what happened?”

“Mm, sorta.” Magnus blinked a couple more times before focusing on Jules. Their little smile had disappeared – faced with a fully-grown and very burly Magnus, they stared back at him like a deer in the headlights, as if they’d forgotten how intimidating the real deal was. “You’re the person who spelled and un-spelled me, right? Nice to meet you.”

“…likewise.” Jules said slowly. “Sorry for casting Regress on you.”

“Nah, it’s all good, I attacked first. And you seem pretty cool.” Magnus paused to look around at the group. “No one’s attacking them so they’re cool, right?”

“They’re cool.” Lup confirmed.

Lucretia wondered if Jules would be open to sitting down and telling her the stories of their village. The small amount of magic they had displayed was nothing like Lucretia had ever seen before. Did they not use wands to channel? And a people without a gender binary? She hadn’t come across a group like that in all her travels. Her fingers itched to grab a pen and start writing.

As if reading her mind, Barry cleared his throat.

“Ah, Jules, I forgot to mention, Lucretia here is the chronicler I told you about. I know you said you wanted to meet her before letting her into the village? She’s the one who records stories – if your elders consent, of course.”

From then on most of the crew left, and the discussion turned to the wonderful topics of history and ships and interplanar travel.

Magnus headed back to the Starblaster while the nerds had their nerd talk. Being an adult again was great, but before he could relax he had to find his weapons and gear. Merle pointed him in the right direction and soon Magnus had his axe strapped firmly to his back once again.

The past few days ( _days? Had it been days, or only one?)_ were kind of blurry. He could remember charging after the elf who had attacked Lucretia, managing to tackle them to the ground, before they shouted a spell and there was a flash of light. He vaguely remembered painting skulls, and making dinner with Taako. The chewie toy was still around his neck from that. Magnus definitely remembered slipping and falling into the river. The surge of terror, water in his mouth, pain up his arm, then warm arms and a shoulder to cry on and voices he trusted that took the pain away.

Fuck that river, he decided.

For a split second after he had regained his senses, every muscle had clenched in preparation for a fight. But the elf didn’t look threatening anymore. They looked kind of embarrassed actually, and the crew was chatting with them, so Magnus chalked the whole incident up to a misunderstanding. It was one of the better misunderstandings he’d been a part of. In this one, no one got dismembered!

All’s well that ends well. The only thing he couldn’t figure out was why Taako kept shooting him glares.

“You were cuter as a kid.” Was the only explanation Magnus could get out of him.

Another weird thing – Lup had gotten into the habit of hugging him randomly and then shrieking with laughter when Magnus scooped her up, as if she had forgotten he was big enough to do that. Just about everyone on the Starblaster was a little more touchy-feely with him now. Not that Magnus could complain. He loved hugs and he took them greedily whenever the chance arose.

Kid Magnus must have been pretty fucking cute.


End file.
